Author: Tom Kerrigan
Date: 02:35:06 01/13/02
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On January 13, 2002 at 05:10:44, David Dory wrote: >On January 13, 2002 at 01:53:02, emerson tan wrote: > >>What's the best computer language to program a chess software in terms of speed >>of execution? Is it FORTRAN? C++? C? or any other language I dont know? What are >>the advantages and disadvantages of each language? What languages does FRITZ, >>SHREDDER, REBEL, TIGER, JUNIOR, HIARCS, CRAFTY, CHESSMATER AND OTHER FAMOUS >>PROGRAMS USE? >> >>Thanks > >Most of the top amateur and pro programs are written in C. Many sprinkle in some >assembly language in very time-critical sections. Some very good programs have >been written in assembly - which is blazingly fast. Unfortunately when the Assembly used to be blazingly fast, back when compilers weren't very good and microprocessors were simpler, but it has lost a lot of its advantages. It is now extremely difficult to write assembly that's faster than compiled C. There are so many rules about how to schedule instructions and align data for good performance that only a computer can keep up with them all. I've participated in contests with highly regarded assembly language programmers and Visual C++ usually outperforms their hand-written code by ~20%. This is often because the humans forget or aren't aware of some obscure rule about aligning data or instructions. Another problem with assembly is that it's hard to keep current. Assembly that ran well on Pentiums does not necessarily run well on Pentium Pros. I know that Fritz was bitten by this problem--the engine was written in assembly and optimized for the Pentium when the PPro came out, and it actually ran slower on an equally-clocked PPro. A C program can just be recompiled with a PPro-suited compiler and get performance gains from the new processor. -Tom
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